Improvement in willow-peelers



U. S. WOLF.

uWillow-Pveers.

Patented April 28, 1874.

l I l NITED STATES UFFORD S. WOLF,

or OTTO, INDIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN- WILLOWPEELERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.

150,213, dated April 28, 1874; application filed December 12, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, UFFORD S. WOLF, of Otto, Clarke county, Indiana, have invented a new and useful Willow-Peeler, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to completely remove the bark without splitting or mashing the willow; and I accomplish this result by a machine which consists essentially of a series of vertical spring-strippers, and two pairs of rubber rollers. rlhese rollers serve to draw the willows in between the aforesaid strippers without crushing the wand, so as to effectually remove the bark by a single passage through the machine, as hereinafter fully described.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a willowpeeler embodying my improvements, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of one of the spring-strippers detached from the machine.

A represents the main frame of the inachine, said frame being provided with a shaft, B, upon which is journaled a spur-wheel, C. The wheel G has a pulley, c, attached to it for the recept-ion of a band, l), that may communicate with a steam-engine, a horse-power, or other suitable motor. The spur-wheel C gears with a pinion, E, of the roll F, and gearing E' transfers motion from said roll F to another one, F'. By this arrangement both of said rolls are compelled to rotate at uniform speeds, but in opposite directions. Meshing with the pinion E is a carrying-wheel, G, which gears with a pinion, H, of a roll, I. Motion is communicated from this roll to another one, I', by means of the gearing H'. rlhese rolls consist of cylindrical wooden cores j' f' t' i', which cores are iitted into rubber tubes, the object of this rubber wrapping or envelope being to insure the passage of the willows through the machine without bruising the wooden portions. On this account it is preferred to employ tubes about an inch and three-quarters thick, as such a thickness of rubber will yield sufficiently to allow willows of various sizes to pass through the machine at the same time. Located in front of the rolls I I', and projecting vertically from the frame of the machine, are a series of strip pers, J. These strippers consist of two vertical parallel bars, K K', which are united by l a spring portion, L, and the upper ends of said bars are provided with outwardly -inclined terminations k lc'. These outwardly-inclined terminations facilitate the insertion of the willows between the strippers. The strippers are maintainedin an erectposition bybein g conned between two lclamping-bars, M N, of which the one, N, is permanently secured to the bed plate or frame of the machine, and said bars are connected together by bolts O. By simply unslackening these bolts the strippers can be adjusted to any desired position, or they may be removed from the machine and other ones substituted for them. P is a platform upon which the willows are laid previous -to being fed into the machine. It are temper-screws for regulating the pressure of the rubber rolls.

The operation is as follows: The willows are rst laid upon the platform l?, with their butt ends toward the machine, and the attendant then proceeds with the feeding operation. Each willow is taken up separately, pressed down between the strippers K K', and its butt inserted between the first pair of rolls I l', after which the peeling operation is entirely automatic. As the rolls I I' revolve in opposite directions, they serve to draw the willow in between the strippers K K', and feed it into the rear rolls F F. This passage through the machine eifectually removes all of the bark. The strippers K K' peel the bark from two opposite sides of the willow, and the rolls Il' and F F', remove it from the other two opposite sides, so that the willow, when delivered from the rear rolls, is entirely free of its bark, and at the same time it is not bruised, mashed, or otherwise injured.

After having inserted a willow between the rst set of strippers the attendant then proceeds to feed others in successively between the second and third set of strippers. By the time he has inserted the third willow, the first one has passed through the machine, and he accordingly inserts another in its place, and then proceeds to nil the second and third strippers again, so as to render the feeding operation a continuous one.

By providing the machine with six pairs of strippers, two boys will be enabled to peel twelve hundred pounds of willows in a single day, and as one hundred pounds per day has L, and their clamping-plates M N O, for the heretofore been as much as one man could aepurpose stated. complish, the advantage of my machine is In testimony of which invention, I hereunto selIf-elvi'dent. t. set my hand.

C 211m ZLS my IHVGD 1011-- Y The combination, substantially as herein de- U' s' WOLF' scribed, of the two pairs of rubber rollers F Attest: I and I I', when arranged to be used in con- ARGUS DEAN, neotion with the spring-strippers J K K k k SUSAN B. HAMILTON. 

